My Nation - India

One of the largest Democratic countries in the World, was on the verge of losing its centennial decade-old priceless heritage, and it remained hanging on the cliff for hundreds of years, till an unassuming man felt the pain of the people of the nation, and decided not to turn back. M.K. Gandhi, who drove the country out of the strangulating clutches of the British Empire, was an exemplary philosopher with iron-like determination. And on the decision of British to retreat back, Jawaharlal Nehru, an exceptional orator, gave one of the greatest speeches in the Parliament, on August 14, 1947. This speech echoed all over the world, millions wept, and the World realized that India will one day become a superpower. The sun that rose in India on that day, was destined never to set.

Nehru speaks

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still large cause of Humanity.

At the dawn of history, India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike, she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals
which gave her strength. We end today, a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that awaits us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?”

The land of India was blessed with great leaders like Sarder Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, Maulana Azad, Lal Bahadur Sastri, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bhagath Singh, Tagore, and many more. Their fortitude and bravery, has been lost in the play scripts. The hope and faith has survived through these tumultuous and insensate periods after Independence, but they are now crushed under the rubble of corruption, insensitivity, and selfish greed for might.

People’s trust is getting hogged in the process of political struggle for supremacy. Great souls are cruelly pushed behind the curtains, to be lost in oblivion, and qualities like greed and selfishness, is acclaimed. Sense of humanity is belittled for demonstrating to the masses that when it comes to success of any kind, morality must take the back seat. The inherent strength of India, the cultural heritage, is denounced for the insentient attraction for the Western enculturation.

The World is changing, and is changing very fast, but it is that nation to claim the supremacy, which beholds its yesteryears of struggle in success and failure. Our inimitable originality is lost in the struggle to pursue the superfluous quest of others. The destiny of the nation belongs to the people of the nation, and we will not succumb to extraneous impels, we will not surrender our faith, we shall vanquish our foes and reclaim our triumph.

If you can revalue the grit and gumption lying dormant inside you, we can revive our nation from dying a slow painful death, and proclaim to the World, that India is not a nation that follows, but leads. The time has come, which comes only rarely in history, to redeem our pledge to the sacred soil of India. The moment is here, to unite and act.

5:42 AM - Thursday, November 2, 2006